Theatre

From musical comedy to a serious courtroom production, the main stage to an outdoor ampitheater, fall to spring, the Blair Academy Players perform five dramatic productions each year.

Ranging from the most inexperienced but curious beginner to the tried and talented old hand who has performed for years, the theatre Program at Blair offers the serious actor and the newcomer to the stage opportunities all year round. Productions are directed by faculty members Craig Evans and Micki Kaplan McMillan, who also teach theatre and English classes.

The Blair Academy Players 2014-2015

A Flea In Her Ear

October 30 & 31; November 1, 7:30 p.m.DuBois Theatre, Armstrong-Hipkins Center for the ArtsA new version of Georges Feydeau's farce by David Ives

Georges Feydeau's classic French farce of marital mayhem has all the elements of the genre: mistaken identities, slamming doors and revolving beds! When Madame Raymonde suspects her straitlaced husband is having an affair, she and her friend, Lucienne, write him an anonymous love letter suggesting a rendezvous at the shady Frisky Puss Hotel. The elaborate ruse sets in motion escalating consequences.

The Mystery of Edwin Drood

A musical based on the unfinished Charles Dickens novel by Rupert Holmes

The audience of Rupert Holmes' recently revived musical finishes the story that Charles Dickens didn't. The audience decides several elements of the ending, so every night is a different show! The original production won the Tony Award "Triple Crown"—Best Musical, Best Book and Best Score. TheNew York Times called the show "boisterous and delectable...a shimmering musical pleasure to savor." Variety raved: "an exuberant romp!"

Picnic

Winner of the 1953 Pulitzer Prize and the Critics Circle Award, this play takes place on Labor Day weekend in the Midwest in the joint backyards of two middle-aged widows. The one house belongs to Flo Owens, who lives there with her two maturing daughters, Madge and Millie, and a boarder who is a spinster school teacher. The other house belongs to Helen Potts, who lives with her elderly and invalid mother. Into this female atmosphere comes a young man named Hal Carter, whose animal vitality seriously upsets the entire group as the plot unfolds and a relationship between Hal and Madge develops.

Almost, Maine

May 14, 15 & 16, 7:30 p.m.Robert J. Evans Open Air Theatre

By John Cariani

As the Almost, Maine website explains, "Welcome to Almost, Maine, a town that's so far north it's almost not in the United States—It's almost in Canada. And it almost doesn't exist. Because its residents never got around to getting organized. So it's just...Almost. One cold, clear Friday night, in the middle of winter, while the northern lights hover in the sky above, Almost's residents find themselves falling in and out of love in the strangest ways. Knees are bruised. Hearts are broken. Love is lost, found and confounded. And life for the people of Almost, Maine, will never be the same. Almost, Maine: It's love. But not quite."